Hello everyone. I am excited about having everyone here together on Monday! Of course, we will need to spend some time getting to know each other, reviewing safety protocols and procedures, and figuring out how to operate in a large group. Although the classroom is not fully set up yet (that will happen over the weekend) my plan is to have only desks, all 3 feet apart (side to side and front to back) and a laundry basket for each student in the hallway for backpacks, coats, etc.  I think this will work well to keep us safe and comfortable. Of course, things change quickly and we will all need to be flexible! Please let me know if you have safety concerns or any questions about how things will look next week.

In academic news, we worked hard this week! The students found all the factors of 100 (all the equations that equal 100) and then used those to find factors of 200, 300, 400, etc. Understanding how to do this is a critical foundational skill as we get into more difficult multiplication. It was tedious work, but well worth it!

We also worked hard as writers. We learned about how to make a complete sentence and how to write a paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting details. We will come back to both of these over and over this year! Punctuation seems to be our nemesis…. I’ll be doubling down on that this year!

In reading, we have worked on a variety of comprehension strategies. We have discussed the importance of visualizing what is happening in our books, and we have learned some ways to move beyond retelling the story to building some ideas about our characters.  Now that we are going to be back in the building full-time, I have ordered physical Reader’s Notebooks for everyone. We will keep the digital ones as a back-up in case things change, but I would always prefer to have the students use a notebook than a screen!

We continue learning about the scientific process during science class. Mostly, we are learning about fair testing and how to make sure we have constants and variables. This week we figured out which paper towel was the most absorbent, and Bounty won! Next week we will work on figuring out which paper towel is the STRONGEST, which is an entirely different question and needs a different procedure. On top of having fun, the students are learning how to hypothesize and collect data!

Our social studies curriculum for the next few weeks will be entirely focused on kindness and community. We have already read a few books about the importance of names. We will also discuss implicit bias and its implications, and of course we will continue to talk about ways we can be kind and inclusive in our small classroom community as well as in our larger town community.

I have put the weekly schedule on the google classroom, but I will also send you a link to it. We have Music as our unified art subject right now, but that will change to Art or Spanish later in the year. PE, Guidance, and Library should stay the same (if ANYTHING can stay the same, that is!)  We will keep our current sharing schedule.

I had told the students to bring their chromebooks and charging cords to school because I was told we would be keeping those here. Today I heard that we are going to continue having the students take home their chromebooks daily, just so we are prepared in case we switch back to Stage 2 or Stage 1. Please continue having your children charge their chromebooks overnight and have them bring them to school (fully charged) each day.  The routine we have established seems to be working, so we will keep it just the same. I apologize for the change in communication!

Tuesday is "bedtime day!" Students can wear pajamas, wear their slippers and socks while in the classroom, and bring one stuffed animal or blanket. They will need to have proper outerwear and shoes for PE, however.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the sun!